European Commission designates Booking Holdings as a ‘gatekeeper’

The European Commission has designated under the Digital Markets Act, Booking as a gatekeeper for its online intermediation service Booking.com and decided not to designate X Ads and TikTok Ads. In parallel, the Commission has opened a market investigation to further assess the rebuttal submitted in relation to the online social networking service X. Today’s decisions follow a review process conducted by the Commission after receiving the notifications of the three companies regarding their potential status as gatekeepers on 1 March 2024. On the basis of Booking’s self-assessment submitted on 1 March 2024 that it meets the relevant thresholds, the Commission has established that this core platform service constitutes an important gateway between businesses and consumers. Following its designation, Booking now has six months to comply with the relevant obligations under the DMA, offering more choice and freedom to end users and fair access of business users to the gatekeeper services. Booking has six months to submit a detailed compliance report in which it outlines how it complies with each of the obligations of the DMA. However, some of the DMA’s obligations start applying with immediate effect, for example, the obligation to inform the Commission of any intended concentration in the digital sector.